NASPO Secure Document Standard approved as an American National Standard

January 14, 2015

“Minimum security requirements for security documents” Approved as an American National Standard

On October 3, 2014, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has published the approval of the NASPO developed standard “Minimum security requirements for security documents”. This standard is the result of a consensus process of document experts, users and general interest. The Document Security Alliance (DSA) also provided critical support through the use of the DSA Glossary as a source of security technology definitions.

This standard is unique in its approach to creating secure documents. Based upon a risk assessment for a class of documents, the standard takes the user through a process of the evaluation of the security risks for each class of document, the vulnerability resistance of each security technology, and the minimum vulnerability resistance requirements. The process provides a flexibility in the selection of technologies to address the level of risks for each class of documents.

By using a risk based approach the standard brings together the recognition of the need for security technologies and the capabilities of the technologies to treat the specific risks. It also recognizes that security technologies provide different functions in the treatment of risks thus requiring a layered approach to document security.

To safeguard the documents the standard also establishes minimum requirements for the production and distribution of security documents through the use of standards and best practices.